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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Ddasaccident220, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident220, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The investigators concluded that the accident was "preventable". The mine should have been found during excavation but the appropriate SOPs were not being used. Supervision was inadequate and the control of movement in cleared areas was not in accordance with SOPs.
Ddasaccident137, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident137, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The victims were in a vehicle that detonated an AT mine with a front wheel. The ground was a dirt road in grazing land. A photograph showed a flat earth area with water in puddles. "The front wheel of the truck and the cabin were destroyed". [A photograph showed the cab separated from the truck and severely damaged.]
Ddasaccident166, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident166, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The victim's partner placed a start stick about 25cm away from the marked edge of the safe lane from which they were advancing, and a second stick half a meter in front of that (so marking the working area). The victim checked his detector, then started to sweep the first 50cm in front of the start stick. This took about one minute. On finding the area clear he bent down to pick up the start stick and moved it forward, taking a step forward as he did so. He stepped on a mine that had been in front of or …
Ddasaccident221, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident221, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The investigators decided that Victim No.1 probably believed the area was safe because it had been checked by the dog. They were "unable to draw any meaningful conclusions about the dog's performance on that day". They felt that Victim No.1 was "not sufficiently systematic" in his detector search.
Ddasaccident023, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident023, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The team began work at 05:45. One dog was found unfit for work and returned to kennels (a tick bite in the eye was the cause). The other dog passed the routine 10 minute pre-work test and started work at around 06:30. Work continued (with two rests) until 09:00 when the dog was given another routine test. The victim entered the cleared area to complete his survey report and at 09:05 and stepped on a mine. He was evacuated to hospital in Maputo and arrived at 10:24. His injuries were severe trauma to left leg resulting in below knee amputation …
Ddasaccident025, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident025, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
There was a safe lane at the bottom of the embankment and deminers were working uphill from it. The victim had been working for fifteen minutes when he decided to clear a wire that was in front of his cleared area. He checked with the Schiebel detector and picked up a reading that he thought was the wire, so ignored it. He entered the uncleared area, cut the wire, and slipped back down the embankment.
Ddasaccident055, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident055, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The investigators visited the site on 4th November 1997 and found the deminers clearing a 2m wide verge on both sides of the road. They observed that the deminers were clearing without using marking sticks and at a distance of only 6 metres apart. The victim and his partner began work at 07:30. By 08.50 they had cleared 502 metres. Both men wore frag-jackets, helmet and visor. The victim was clearing by using his prodder. He was called to help his Section Leader remove grass from a large pothole in the road. As he returned at 08:50 he stepped on …
Ddasaccident222, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident222, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The investigators concluded that the demining group had insufficient "lead-time" to properly plan the task, that the base-line was not marked and marking of cleared areas was inadequate and that the mine was below the depth that prodding and excavation would normally find it.
Ddasaccident223, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident223, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The investigators found no fault with the company's SOPs but said that "insufficient planning and lead-time was allowed for the clearance team to be prepared…". They thought that the "contractual pressure created an atmosphere of unnecessary urgency", that communications between the demining company and the [QA] were inadequate and that the parties involved were all interpreting the contract differently.
Ddasaccident008, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident008, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
At 10:30 the victim was walking through the area to reach the rest area when he stood on a mine, thought to be a PMN buried to a depth of about 5cm. The victim suffered a below knee amputation to his left leg and minor injuries to both arms and legs.
Ddasaccident224, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident224, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The team were finishing their shift for the day and the victim was asked to mark the edge of the area that had been surveyed that day. As he walked to that point he trod on an undetected PMA-3. The victim was later told that the mine had been laid too deep for the detectors to locate. The victim was wearing military boots, leggings, a frag-jacket, and a helmet & visor.
Ddasaccident168, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident168, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The victim was a prodder man and he and his partner had already cleared about 20m and had found about 30 fragments. At 08:30 the victim was returning along the lane after clearing some vegetation and trod on a mine that was about 11m into the lane.
Ddasaccident234, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident234, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The Team Commander knew that there were mines present. "After thorough checking [he] had ordered the removal of 15cm of topsoil, followed by a second 15cm. The mine was still 15cm below the surface. This was too deep for the detector to pick it up and too deep for the prodder to reveal its presence… the ground compacted under his weight and set off the mine."
Ddasaccident078, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident078, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The Team leader was preparing to destroy the discovered mines when he was injured in the first mine accident on the site that day [See accident No.227]. After the Supervisor had dealt with that accident he went looking for the deminer who had found the mines, intending to appoint him as the acting Team Leader.
Ddasaccident026, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident026, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
On the day of the accident a truck initiated a mine with its right front wheel as it turned onto the verge to unload. The driver was sitting above the wheel that caused the detonation. He escaped from the cab before it caught fire. He was taken to hospital but later discharged in "good health". The blast wave threw the truck one-meter forward, destroyed the wheel and made the cab and front tyres catch fire. [Photographs indicate minimal blast damage to the cab above the wheel arch – implying deflagration rather than detonation of the device, or an incendiary/small blast …
Ddasaccident235, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident235, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The document stated that the deminers were working on a bare and stony slope. They were "familiar with the ground" and the minefield record. The victim stood at the edge of the mined area, stepped into it and saw a GORADZE mine. He asked a deminer behind him (the report records that the second man was "unprotected") to confirm the identification and moved forward. As he did so he stepped on a mine that he had not seen. As he fell backwards he detonated a second mine that he had failed to detect.
Ddasaccident227, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident227, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The victim [who was wearing protective equipment including leggings] took over clearance at the new end-of-lane and had cleared about five metres when he stepped on a mine that may have been "concealed below a small rock". The Team Leader was close to the victim. Three other deminers hurried along the lane to his assistance and they carried the victim to the Control Point where the medic attended him. The victim suffered "bruising and flesh injuries to his lower leg and fractures to his left foot". He was not expected to require amputation. It took "approximately 15 minutes" to reach …
Ddasaccident228, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident228, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
Prior to the accident the Team Leader had "used a machete to clear foliage and to inspect uncleared ground" in the accident lane. He did not use a detector or prodder. He advanced ten metres in this way, then handed over to the victim. The ten metres were counted as "cleared". The Team Leader was reported to have "used this system on other occasions to encourage deminers to clear areas faster". He was not wearing any protective equipment. During this time he missed what the report states was a "PMA" [I infer a PMA-3]. The deminers returned to work and …
Ddasaccident057, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident057, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The investigators visited the site on 9/10th July. They found that the accident occurred in a minefield laid by government troops in 1991/2. The mines were irregularly spaced in 3km long lanes. PPM-2 and POMZ-2 mines were found (largely) in different parts of the field. There was "scrub" about a metre high where the accident occurred and the ground was "hard clay with some organic mix" which allowed the use of detectors. Two parallel lines of PPM-2 mines had been found with an "exploratory base line". Further lanes were being cut to confirm the direction of the mine-lines. The accident …
Ddasaccident093, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident093, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The Investigators determined that the accident occurred when the Assistant Team Leader and the Section Leader went to inspect the site of another accident that had occurred the day before [believed to be 1st June]. They did this without the permission of the Team Leader, and without his being aware of it.
Ddasaccident232, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident232, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The document states that the demining team were working in a gulley in a wooded area. "They had used prodders to prove the ground from which they were lifting mines. They also used detectors to sweep the area to 15m beyond the area which had been prodded". A member of the demining team who had been involved in laying the mines during the war "walked into the area which had been swept by detectors and detonated a PMA-3".
Ddasaccident080, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident080, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The victim was part of an advance team which was defining the perimeter of a suspected mined area, with the help of a local guide. The victim was putting in metal markers about 3m away from the existing mined-area boundary stakes. At 09:20 the victim stepped on a mine about 8m away from the existing boundary stakes. He suffered " a cracked bone and bruising to his left foot".
Ddasaccident171, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident171, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
A medical report indicated that the accident occurred at 11:50 and the victim was given first aid for 15 minutes. He arrived at Mongkul Borey Provincial Hospital at 12:40. He had suffered a traumatic amputation of his right foot above the ankle, minor fragment wounds along the length of his left leg and superficial wounds on the back of his left hand.
Ddasaccident229, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident229, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The team decided that the work had moved away from the direction of the path, so work would start three metres behind the end of the lane and go in a slightly different direction. This was in the area that had been probed, not checked by a dog. The deminers walked to the new start point, then began to return to the change-over point. Victim No.1 was behind Victim No.2 when he stepped on a PMA-2. He suffered a "traumatic amputation" below his right knee. Victim No.2 had "less serious" injuries.
Ddasaccident059, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident059, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
At 11:10 he initiated the device while kneeling on the ground "carrying out demining". He had "obviously not found" the device when he had cleared the area himself "some minutes earlier". The mine was "very old and rusty which probably caused the malfunction of the mine". "Metal fragments at the scene confirm that the metal in the mine was almost completely corrugated" [presumably the word "corroded" was intended]. The deminer had been working with the "Ebex 420SI" detector [Ebinger] and either found metal near the mine and did not recheck after removing it, or did not calibrate his detector properly. …
Ddasaccident060, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident060, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The report stated that the demining task was a series of pylons and a bridge. Teams of two deminers per pylon were clearing a 10 metre square area around the base. When the board of inquiry visited the site on 1st March, demining was in progress around other pylons and they ordered it to stop immediately. The inquiry criticised the fact that the site had been tidied before their arrival. The were told that the victim had located two mines that day prior to the accident. These were destroyed and the victim was checking the blast area with his detector …
Ddasaccident109, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident109, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The investigators determined that the victim was walking in an area that had been cleared three days previously by his own party as he made his way from the minefield at the end of the working day. He trod on a PMN mine that had been missed [presumably identified by inference]. A photograph showed a visor, which had been held in the victim's hand and had shattered. The remnants of the victim's boot were also shown.